In Finland we have these traditional pastries called joulutorttu, Christmas tart, which doesn’t sound right in English. They are made from puff pastry and plum jam, and only during Christmas time, to the dissatisfaction of our international guest. Of course in theory you can make these pastries when ever, but you just don’t, because tradition.

Our guest had tasted joulutorttu in Toronto, made by her boyfriend’s mom who is Finnish, and knowing they are a Finnish treat, she wanted them in Finland. Her boyfriend tried to explain that they are only made during Christmas time, but she was relentless in her search for them in every cafe along the way. When they came to Central Finland and we were doing food shopping before heading to the countryside, she asked me if we could bake joulutorttu.

I was of course amused and almost mortified by the idea of having Christmas tarts in August, but I decided to be a good host. The thing is, the plum jam we use for the tarts, is a seasonal product, so we had to substitute it with a fig jam. Not very Finnish of us... But to all of our surprise, it tasted extremely similar in the final product.

So if there are any cafe owners reading this, especially in Helsinki, you should apparently add joulutorttu to your selection, year round.

I secretly enjoyed being a rebel and eating joulutorttu during the summer.

_{Ps. Don’t worry @galenkp, munkki is available all year round.}